1. Is English or Mandarin the
language of the future?
By Jennifer Pak BBC World Service
English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of the
future? If Mandarin Chinese is to challenge English globally, then it first has to conquer its
own backyard, South East Asia.
In Malaysia's southernmost city of Johor Bahru, the desire to speak good English has driven
some children to make a remarkable two-hour journey to school every day.
Nine-year-old Aw Yee Han hops on a yellow mini van at 04:30. His passport is tucked inside a
small pouch hung around his neck.
This makes it easier for him to show it to immigration officials when he reaches the Malaysian
border.
His school is located on the other side, in Singapore, where unlike in Malaysia, English is the
main language.
It's not your typical school run, but his mother, Shirley Chua thinks it's worth it.
"Science and maths are all written in English so it's essential for my son to be fluent in the
language," she says.
The assumption that Mandarin will grow with China's economic rise may be flawed. Consider
Japan which, after spectacular post-war economic growth, became the world's second-biggest
economy. The Japanese language saw no comparable rise in power and prestige.
The same may prove true of Mandarin. The character-based writing system requires years of
hard work for even native speakers to learn, and poses a formidable obstacle to foreigners. In
Asia, where China's influence is thousands of years old, this may pose less of a problem. But in
the West, even dedicated students labour for years before they can confidently read a text of
normal difficulty on a random topic.
Finally, many languages in Asia, Africa and the Amazon use "tones" (rising, falling, flat or
dipping pitch contours) to distinguish different words. For speakers of tonal languages (like
Vietnamese) learning the tones of Mandarin poses no particular difficulty. But speakers of non-
tonal languages struggle to learn tones in adulthood - just ask any adult Mandarin-learner for
their funniest story about using a word with the wrong tone.

2. An estimated 15,000 students from southern Johor state make the same bus journey across the
border every day. It may seem like a drastic measure, but some parents don't trust the
education system in Malaysia - they worry that the value of English is declining in the country.
Since independence from the British in 1957, the country has phased out schools that teach in
English. By the early 1980s, most students were learning in the national language of Malay.
As a result, analysts say Malaysian graduates became less employable in the IT sector.
"We've seen a drastic reduction in the standard of English in our country, not just among the
students but I think among the teachers as well," says political commentator OngKian Ming.
Those who believe that English is important for their children's future either send their kids to
expensive private schools or to Singapore, where the government has been credited as being
far-sighted for adopting the language of its former colonial master.
Nearly three-quarters of the population in Singapore are ethnic Chinese but English is the
national language.
Many believe that this has helped the city state earn the title of being the easiest place to do
business, by the World Bank.
Lost in translation
Up to 7,000 different languages are estimated to be spoken around the world
Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese,
Japanese, German and French are world's most widely spoken languages, according to
UNESCO
Languages are grouped into families that share a common ancestry
English is related to German and Dutch, and all are part of Indo-European family of
languages
Also includes French, Spanish and Italian, which come from Latin
2,200 of the world's languages can be found in Asia, while Europe has 260
However, the dominance of English is now being challenged by the rise of China in Singapore.
The Singapore Chinese Chamber Institute of Business has added Chinese classes for business
use in recent years.
Students are being taught in Mandarin rather than the Hokkien dialect spoken by the older
Chinese immigrants.
These courses have proved popular, ever since the government began providing subsidies for
Singaporeans to learn Chinese in 2009 during the global financial crisis.

3. "The government pushed to provide them with an opportunity to upgrade themselves so as to
prepare themselves for the economic upturn," says chamber spokesperson Alwyn Chia.
Some businesses are already desperate for Chinese speakers.
Lee Han Shih, who runs a multimedia company, says English is becoming less important to him
financially because he is taking western clients to do business in China.
"So obviously you need to learn English but you also need to know Chinese," says Mr Lee.
As China's economic power grows, Mr Lee believes that Mandarin will overtake English. In fact,
he has already been seeing hints of this.
"The decline of the English language probably follows the decline of the US dollar.
"If the renminbi is becoming the next reserve currency then you have to learn Chinese."
More and more, he says, places like Brazil and China are doing business in the renminbi, not the
US dollar, so there is less of a need to use English.
Bilingualism
Indeed, China's clout is growing in South East Asia, becoming the region's top trading partner.
But to say that Mandarin will rival English is a "bit of a stretch", says ManojVohra, Asia director
at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Even companies in China, who prefer to operate in Chinese, are looking for managers who
speak both Mandarin and English if they want to expand abroad, he says.
"They tend to act as their bridges."
So the future of English is not a question of whether it will be overtaken by Mandarin, but
whether it will co-exist with Chinese, says Vohra.
He believes bilingualism will triumph in South East Asia.
It is a sound economic argument, but in Vietnam's case, there is resistance to learning
Mandarin.
The country may share a border with China, but the Vietnamese government's choice to not
emphasise Mandarin is an emotional one, says leading economist Le Dang Doanh.

4. "All the streets in Vietnam are named according to generals and emperors that have been
fighting against the Chinese invasion for 2000 years," he says.
Tensions flared up again last May over the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
Anti-Chinese sentiment means that young Vietnamese are choosing to embrace English - the
language of a defeated enemy. Many families still bear the psychological scars from the
Vietnam War with the United States.
Yet there is no animosity towards English because the founding father of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh,
made a clear distinction between the so-called American imperialists who were bombarding
Vietnam and the American people, says Le Dang Doanh.
Many Vietnamese who have lost family members during the war are now studying in America,
he says.
"We never forget any victim in the past but in order to industrialise and normalise a country,
Vietnam needs to speak English."
The Vietnamese government has an ambitious goal to ensure all young people leaving school by
2020 will have a good grasp of the English language.
But it's not hard for young Vietnamese to accept English. For some, the language offers a sense
of freedom in Vietnam, where the one-party communist state retains a tight grip on all media.
In a public square in central Hanoi, a group of young men are break-dancing to the pulsing
beats of western hip hop. Ngoc Tu, 20, says he only listens to English music.
"The Ministry of Culture has banned a lot of [Vietnamese] songs and any cultural publications
that refer to freedom or rebellion but... English songs are not censored."
It is debatable whether English or Mandarin will dominate in South East Asia in the future.
There are arguments for both on the economic front.
But culturally, there is no dispute.
Even Mandarin language enthusiasts like Singaporean businessman Mr Lee, says that English
will remain popular so long as Hollywood exists.
The success of movies such as Kung Fu Panda, an American production about a Chinese animal,
has caused a lot of anxiety in China, he says.
There have been many cartoons in China about pandas before, but none had reached
commercial success, says Mr Lee.

5. "The moment Kung Fu Panda hit the cinemas everybody watched it. They bought the
merchandise and they learned English."